


The Dance

by aurumsalvator



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Marvel - Freeform, mcu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 00:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2488469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurumsalvator/pseuds/aurumsalvator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The relationship no one believed would last yet it beat all odds... Or did it? Everything had been going so well when it all came crashing down on Tony Stark. But 'crashing down' might be too dramatic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dance

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Marvel, or anything else. Written purely for entertainment purposes and to fulfill my own love and adoration of Pepperony! And yes, I realize this fic isn't exactly a Pepperony one, but it involves them and I couldn't stop listening to "The Dance" by Garth Brooks so I thought I'd write something on it. Being that Pepperony is my OTP, I didn't know what else to do.

Looking back on it all now, what Tony called 'the dance', he couldn't help but smile. God knew he'd given his best years to the strawberry blonde, had given her his everything, and he knew she'd done the same in return. At the time it all fell apart, though, he'd felt otherwise. He'd only ever loved one woman and that had been Pepper Potts. Hell, he _still_ loved the woman and probably always would, he was just unable to act upon such feelings. Not now that she'd married and was expecting a child with her husband. Tony had met him a few times, as well, had even been invited to the wedding, but it had been a long while since he'd talked to her. Maybe it was better that way.

Though he was happy and content now, it hadn't always been that way. The night it had all happened had been one of the worst of his life, ranking right up there with the night he'd lost his parents; the engineer was honestly a magnet for disastrous happenings. It wasn't that there had been any yelling on either of their parts, but there had been tears, more so on Tony's end. The reason it hit so hard was that it was out of the blue and came without warning; to Tony, all of the world had been right in that moment. She'd assured him she loved him before proceeding to say she couldn't do it anymore, couldn't be with him like that. She loved him but she was no longer _in_ love with him. It had hit Tony hard and he'd begged her to reconsider, had begged her to give him another chance; she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. But she'd simply continued on, all of her things already packed -- how had he not noticed that before? -- and said goodbye, placing one last kiss upon his lips before grabbing what she could and walking out of his life. It was at least six months after that they finally talked again and that had been when she'd asked him to come to her wedding. He'd accepted almost immediately, amazed at how happy he'd been for her on the big day.

They way Tony looked at it, there was one reason and one alone as to why he was able to handle all of the pain: he hadn't missed the dance. That's not in reference to a literal dance, more of a metaphorical and mental one. Every moment he'd spent with Pepper Potts, awake or asleep at her side, was something he'd treasure for the rest of his life. Every touch, every kiss, every caress: he could never forget it, _would_ never forget it. He'd felt as if he were a king standing on top of the world each time he held the strawberry blonde and he knew she'd felt like a queen in his care; Tony Stark had made sure she'd been well taken care of by him and him alone. He'd felt as if he held everything just in holding her as well, as if he could do anything he wanted as long as she had been at his side. _That_ was why he'd been so blindsided by her departure from his life. 

Tony had never given much thought, if any, to the day they'd part, foolishly having believed that they'd be together forever. And it hadn't been because he'd been too wrapped in his own little world of tinkering with the suits nor had it been because of his narcissistic ways; Tony had given Pepper his all. They, more Pepper, had grown apart in a sense. They loved one another dearly, even at the time of their parting, but it was a different kind of love than they'd started with. Tony had let her go without so much as his begging because, deep down and all along, he'd known she was too good for him, that he hadn't deserved her. But he'd been a selfish man to have kept her for so long. Maybe it really _was_ better that it had happened that way, that she'd left him and he hadn't gotten her to stay. Tony Stark was a man of chance, especially when it came to love, and Pepper had been the only one to capture his heart. Sometimes he'd look back and wonder, had he done something differently, if he would have been able to change it all. As soon as the thought would occur, though, he'd brush it away. It had been worth it. The dance had been worth all of the pain he'd gone through. _She_ had been worth it.


End file.
